How does JGL know exactly when and where to be when it's time to take out his target? It doesn't seem like he has any kind of communication with the future - this movie seems to abide by Terminator rules of time travel, not Back to the Future rules.

_________________Death is pretty finalI'm collecting vinylI'm gonna DJ at the end of the world.

How does JGL know exactly when and where to be when it's time to take out his target? It doesn't seem like he has any kind of communication with the future - this movie seems to abide by Terminator rules of time travel, not Back to the Future rules.

He gets a note from Abe with the time and place (we see one of these notes at one point), although I think the place is always the same. Presumably Abe gets that information from his buddies in the future.

Sun Oct 07, 2012 5:28 pm

Sexual Chocolate

Director

Joined: Sun Jun 20, 2010 4:04 pmPosts: 1834Location: New Hampshire

Re: LOOPER

James Berardinelli wrote:

Sexual Chocolate wrote:

I haven't read the whole thread, or glanced through all of the spoilers, but I do think I've found one hole in this film (there always seems to be one in every time travel movie).

How does JGL know exactly when and where to be when it's time to take out his target? It doesn't seem like he has any kind of communication with the future - this movie seems to abide by Terminator rules of time travel, not Back to the Future rules.

He gets a note from Abe with the time and place (we see one of these notes at one point), although I think the place is always the same. Presumably Abe gets that information from his buddies in the future.

But communication with the future is never really established. That's what I meant when I said the movie adheres to Terminator rules.

_________________Death is pretty finalI'm collecting vinylI'm gonna DJ at the end of the world.

Tue Oct 09, 2012 8:29 pm

dmar91

Assistant Second Unit Director

Joined: Mon Dec 06, 2010 3:26 pmPosts: 101Location: Singapore

Re: LOOPER

Well, it only just arrived in my distant location today so I'm able to confirm my worst fears were realised. As a time travel film, it's a disaster. It's not too bad as a kind of moral parable but vastly disappointing.

Thu Oct 11, 2012 10:41 am

Ken

Director

Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 6:26 pmPosts: 1728

Re: LOOPER

This movie's pretty fuckin' awesome. The restless editing put me off a little bit at the beginning, but it's surprisingly well-shot and doesn't resort to a lot of the stylistic or narrative cliches that most popular sci-fis fall into.

One particular flourish I loved was an early shot sequence of the grimy 2044 city street. The apparent details don't establish it as being much different from our present, except that just seconds before the cut to the next scene, a hoverbike zooms by. A little more obvious was the clever duplication of certain shots, such as JGL's regular appointments out in the field. That particular detail may seem common sense, but it is a much less obvious choice than it seems when you consider the paucity of such visual cleverness in most of today's popular thrillers. The whole film shows an attention to the visual elements that I really appreciated.

Like many time travel movies, this one wisely avoids the scientific details, but unlike many, it doesn't shuffle time travel to the fringes of the story, either. In movies like The Terminator and Back to the Future, time travel is essentially just how the characters are all placed into the story like pieces on a game board in their starting positions. Here, time travel returns again and again for a series of nasty/clever little bits.

And to everyone sweating the small details, ask yourself this: for each little bit that left unresolved questions, contradicted another little bit, or otherwise didn't make narrative sense, was there a payoff in another category--whether emotional, thematic, visceral, rule of cool, or otherwise--that made it worth the momentary sacrifice of logic? In my mind, this movie justifies itself every time.

If there was anything I didn't like, it was JGL's distracting makeup job. I did not realize probably until I was supposed to that he was supposed to resemble Bruce Willis (I knew nothing of the plot going in), so early on I was just assuming he'd gotten botox or something.

_________________The temptation is to like what you should like--not what you do like... another temptation is to come up with an interesting reason for liking it that may not actually be the reason you like it.

Mon Oct 29, 2012 12:13 am

hmcindie

Gaffer

Joined: Fri Feb 04, 2011 5:26 pmPosts: 11

Re: LOOPER

Hmm, just saw this one. I have some problems with it. The more think about it, the more the film starts deteriorating for me.

I really liked the beginning and first 45 minutes. After they got to the farmland, it starts to lose it's touch and become just dumb. So they just wanted to wait for old Joe to appear? But they are standing there out sticking like dumbasses. Then the scene with the "mafiaguy/cop". It didn't make any sense that he would just wonder into a random house for that long a time. No badges or anything? Just claim you are the "mob" and you can walk into a house? So weak. Also the mafia is apparently one fat dude in a basement with about 10 guards. Running the whole city. Yeah right.

The ending is great eventhough all the timetravel stuff was just so inane. I seriously had to suspend my disbelief about what every character was doing. Some scenes made sense in dramatic film narration- way (the ending) but that was a decision that I just don't see Joe - the character - making. It's a writers solution. Not that character. Joe would never do that based on the previous days. The old Joe was the same murderer as the young one. How come the young one was suddenly more than decent? Because the writer needed him to be.

One thing that really brings this down is that I don't really like any of the characters. Bruce was great but harmfully underutilised after the excellent introductions. Also the middling middlepart with just nothing happening. They are supposed to build up the characters for the ending but everything about them was just so weak.

But after all that ranting I did still enjoy it somewhat. I'd say a solid 2,5/4.

Wed Nov 07, 2012 5:53 pm

H.I. McDonough

Director

Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 10:09 pmPosts: 1350

Re: LOOPER

PeachyPete wrote:

Vexer wrote:

Awkward Beard Man wrote:

Actually Kid Blue's arc as a whole ended a bit anticlimactically. It sort of felt like it was building to something bigger, as if something was cut or was initially planned to play out differently.

That was another complaint I had, I didn't find Kid Blue to be a very interesting character because of how undeveloped he was, so I felt that the film would've better off without his character altogether if they weren't going to do anything interesting with him.

He's what? The 5th or 6th most important character in the movie? I'd say he's pretty well developed for the purpose he serves. He's got clear motivations for his actions and he serves the screenplay as yet another point of contrast to Joe.

I'm not saying he's the most three dimensional character ever written, it's just odd to criticize the movie for how it handled a character an inferior movie would treat as non-descript Henchman #1.

Agreed, though Greedos* are generally unlikable characters anyway... and Kid Blue was no exception.

*My nickname for weaselly, pathetic henchmen who are oh so eager to prove to their superiors that they're ready for the big leagues when they're clearly not (so named for the Star Wars character, obviously).

Fri Nov 09, 2012 9:47 pm

mrguinness

Second Unit Director

Joined: Mon Oct 08, 2012 9:42 amPosts: 384Location: NJ

Re: LOOPER

watched it again and I definitely think that there was absolutely no reason for Joseph Gordon Levitt's makeup. It was incredibly distracting and pretty much the only thing about the movie I didn't like.

And it should have been nominated for best picture, esp since not all the slots were taken and it was considerably better than some of these that were...

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